Photons to Bits and Beyond: The Science and Technology of Digital Image Sensors

Digital cameras are now small and everywhere (cell phones, to iPads, webcams, pill cameras, automobiles, digital SLRs, and Mars Rovers). Images from these cameras shape our culture on a daily basis, from Facebook and Skype to unforgettable images of the Japanese tsunami and the Arab Spring. This lecture addressed the science and engineering technology behind capturing these images, as well as a brief history of how this technology transferred from the lab at JPL into your cell phone. Future technology directions including the Quanta Image Sensor (QIS) was also discussed.

A workshop.

Eric R. Fossum, engineering professor at Dartmouth and a consultant to Samsung Electronics Semiconductor R&D Center, is a leading solid-state image sensor device physicist, and is best known for inventing the CMOS image sensor, where his 'camera-on-a-chip technology is used in nearly all camera phones and webcams, digital-still cameras, high-speed motion capture cameras, automotive cameras, dental x-ray cameras, and swallowable pill cameras.